Cleveland Point Sunrise
I have been wanting to get back out to Cleveland Point now for a while, only I havn’t been able to schedule it around a low tide until today.
A retreating tide a few minutes before sunrise. The cloud lowest to the horizon was great blocking alot of light from the sun. I used my 3 Stop reverse ND filter for this.
Brisbane City v2
At 5:20pm this afternoon I decided the cloud cover could be developing into something spectacular, lots of fast low flying clouds as well as some very high ones. So I headed off from work, I did try and find a new location to take photos from but didn’t have much luck. End up back at Kangaroo Point. I walked around and ended up at the same location as earlier in the week, but decided against that. I went down to the base of the cliffs and down onto a rock ledge by the river for a lower prespective. I did try and get the citycats and ferries in shot on the river but the long stutter speed made them blurry.
By the time sunset and twilight rolled around, most of the low flying clouds had all but disappeared over the horizon.
I struggled with over exposure from the direct sunlight on the left, I really needed a 4 or 5 stop ND. I think there was about a 1 1/2 stop difference in light from left to right.
I’m enjoying these sunsets, I think I might be over sunrises for a bit. Haha
Brisbane City
My new Singh-Ray filters arrived today. Totally Awesome!!!!! Adds a new element to the creative process.
One thing I will say though is it sucks holding them, you definitely need a holder for them. Going to try an organise one before the weekend.
My Photos 2007 Part 2
The 2nd half of 2007, the first 4 months was very active.
July 2007
An afternoon at the kangaroo point cliffs. Typical hot spot for photographers to capture the city 
I found this image today, from a Friday night sessions of the Story Bridge.
Wellington Point Sunrise, the morning that triggered an obsession with sunrise shoots. I enjoyed it so much from now till the end of the year it is pretty much all I do, with 1 or 2 sunset shoots. But hey when you can get shots like this why wouldn’t you.
August 2007
After the Wellington Point sunrise, I just went to town with my photography. I think every weekend I was doing at least 2 shoots.
Wynumm Sunrise, a little disappointed in this one having come from the Wellington Point one the previous weekend, none the less I experimented with the 200mm on the sun.
Shorncliffe Sunrise
Cleveland Sunrise, this shoot spawned my most successful flickr image.
The Ekka, I went with the masses to take photos of the Ekka fireworks one night on the roof of the car park, until now I had not posted any of these photos.
BCG hosted another model photo shoot/workshop this time at Fort Lytton, I was more interested in the old buildings and guns around the place.
Wellinton Point Sunset, a very quick sunset with out any major cloud cover (I’m not a fan of those ones), I fully submerged the tripod to achieve this low angle of the mangrove. This was also the time some suspicious folk attempted to steal my camera bag, I spotted them just in time.
Was a slow night waiting for the Lunar Eclipse, at least I can say I witnessed it.
September 2007
September saw me invest in the Canon 5D, to continue the eveolution of my photography equipment and in preparation for Adam and Nee’s wedding.
My first place of call with the new body was Wellington Point for a sunrise.
Back at Poppas House, to capture all the flowers he had around the garden.
My final purchase to be ready for Adam and Nee’s wedding was a Canon 24-70mm f2.8, an awesome lens. I use it for all my portrait work now.
The Wedding, I was nervous being the photographer for the day. I took lots of photos.
October 2007
October saw me take some holidays, something I hadn’t done in a while.
My plan was to go to the Dicky Beach wreck, I got lost and ended up at a beach near Kings Beach. A very colourless sunrise, it was raining for the most part, it was still great. This was the first use of my Cokin Neutral Density filter.
My first official attempt at Storm Chasing, I wouldn’t really call it chasing… more like me driving around aimlessly in the rain. As I wasn’t ahead or behind the storm but in it. I did manage to get a shot of it out near Wivenhoe.
A trek south to the Gold Coast was on the agenda for my holidays, I wanted to go take some photos of Natural Bridge and the water falls in the area.
The last weekend of October saw me take part in a nude workshop organised by Adam Bolt. Was a great workshop, I ended up winning 1st prize for the competition of photos taken on the day.
November 2007
A very quiet month on the photo front. I only managed to make it out for one sunrise in the first weekend of November.
December 2007After about 4 weeks break I decided it was time to get back in to it. I choose Fingal Heads as a location, note to self take a freaking flash light, trekking through the bush in the dark trying to find something isn’t the most exciting experience. I wish I had the 3 stop for this as the 2stop wasn’t helping much.
Well that is it for 2007, I took a lot of photos, some good, some bad, learnt a great deal. I look forward to 2008, I plan to venture further than Queensland’s Great South East. Tasmania is a big goal for me I really want to get down there.
I hope you all enjoyed the photos, I have again tried to include some new shots unseen before.
My Photos 2007 Part 1
Tonight I had a great idea… why don’t I go through all my photos for 2007 and publish a little 2007 year in review for all my photography… err… it sure sounded like a a great idea. I guess I didn’t realise how many photos I had actually taken last year. So I am going to break this post into parts. I have dug deep and tried to find photos people may have not seen before. I hope you all enjoy, anyway on with the post.
January 2007
The first 3 weeks of January was pretty boring until Australia day which saw me out on the wonderful Moreton Bay with friends.
February 2007
A very quick month, I only managed to take photos of the Brisbane Motor Show.
March 2007
This was the month I really started taking my photography seriously. With several trips out and about, I took a lot of photos however they are not that great technically 
plus I was also still shooting in JPEG. The first week saw me heading west to Crows Nest for their competition, what I learnt from that trip was have a plan, don’t just drive somewhere and expect photo opportunities to be starring you in the face (I didn’t have any photos to submit to that competition, maybe this year things will be better).
I also manged to make it out onto Peel Island with my camera using my LowePro DryZone bag (kept everything dry). I only had 45mins before we had to head back aboard the boat. I did a bit of exploring, I would love to go back here for a sunset or sunrise photo shoot, only I need access to a boat.
The third week saw me invest in the Canon 15mm Fisheye and my first Friday night sessions (Where I had planned to go out every Friday taking photos, LOL that didn’t last very long). I havn’t been back to the Story Bridge yet to try these shots with the full frame sensor.
That weekend saw me out at Cleveland Point for a sunset, was a great sunset lots of rain clouds for sun light to reflect off. Looking back now at this shot, I should have done a pano, this shot doesn’t really capture much of the colours available in the sky.
The last week of March saw me try another Friday Night sessions.
Again that weekend saw me out for a sunset, this time at Wellington Point, a pretty average sunset.
April 2007
Another active month for my photography, I finally came to my senses and started shooting in RAW. This was also the month I discovered HDR images.
While out on an errand for work I spotted this plane parked near the old Brisbane airport terminal, would have liked to be on the other side of the fence :(.
Cleveland Sunset, one of my favourite places to go to growing up, this is also one of my favourite sunset shoots.
BCG had a model photo shoot/workshop at the Gold Coast spit, I attended, it was great. While this photo isn’t of a model 
this dog was really enjoying showing off to all the people around.
The last weekend of April saw me head down to Sydney for my sisters 30th birthday. Spent an afternoon down at circular quay.
May 2007
May was a realativly quiet month. I added the 50mm f1.4 to my collection of lenses, and I have used it much since, I think I might sell it.
One Saturday afternoon I went in search of an alternative sunset location, than the typical Moreton Bay ones I had been doing, I found this old train yard in Hamilton.
One afternoon at my Poppas I took this photo of some flowers he had been given.
The last half of May saw me attend my first photographic course, it was an advanced certificate in lighting course. This was my first use of studio lighting, bit of a learning curve, I pretty sure I would have forgotten everything I learnt at that course by now.
June 2007
June only saw my camera out for 3 days, and that was for the Nee Festival which was held over the June long weekend. I went camping down near Mt Maroon with Adam, Nee, Ricks and a few other people. Was a great weekend I can’t wait for this year.
Nee Festival Day 1, thanks to some help from Ricky, we had a tempted a star trail photo.
Nee Festival Day 2, a quiet day most of us were hung over. Another shot looking back now that I would have liked to see as a pano.
Nee Festival Day 3, this was my first ever sunrise shoot, I believe I was still drunk.
That is it, for the first part of my 2007 photography review. Haha I’m sure the text accompanying the photos is pretty lame, I hope you at least enjoyed the photos Stay tuned for the next part.
Keep going or stop?
Driving home in summer is such a tease, as it is sunset right around when I’m crossing the story bridge. I first decided that I wasn’t going to stop, but metres away from home I changed my mind. I made it just in time to capture this…
The ND filters are far better at producing fantastic images than any HDR image, however I believe a 3 stop was really needed for this one, not the Cokin 2 stop I had in my bag. Bring on the 3 stop Singh-rays I say 
Enjoy.
Sunday Rain
After an extremely hot morning an early afternoon storm rolled through. I did attempt to follow it in my car, but it did not seem to have any thunder and lightning, there was a lot of rain though. I made a brief stop at New Farm park as I knew the would be drops of water on the flowers.
I didn’t realise how many different flower types they have in New Farm park.
How cool are these trees, used the fish eye on this one.
Wild Horse Mountain
This morning I casually awoke around quarter to 4 (LOL), for a trip up the coast to Wild Horse Mountain.
Ok! I didn’t realise how high Wild Horse Mountain was, and that you can’t actually drive your car up it, sure there is a concrete driveway but it has a gate, I guess that is for the ranger/scientists? Anyway it is a 700m walk up which is very very very steep, certainly gave the old calf muscles a work out.
Anyway so I got to the top, I have no idea how long it took me. So I am unpacking all my gear and it stumbled on me (after empting the complete camera bag onto a bench) I didn’t remember to put the bracket which attaches the camera to the tripod in the bag. It might have been in the car, I wasn’t sure, all I know was I sure as hell wasn’t going back down the mountain just to get it.
Enough rambling, as I had expected there was low flying clouds hanging around the tips of the mountains. Which just added that something special to the photos.
I found that the wide angle lens weren’t of any use here, they captured too much of the sky and the ground (which contains the Bruce Highway), so pretty much all of my photos are with the Canon 70-200mm f4.0.
As I always do I looked for the abstract photos with in the 360 degrees of viewable landscape. I think it was also at this point I realised that the camera was on 1000 ISO, not happy.
After a while I set off, there are only so many photos you can take in one spot. (Yes the walk down was easier).
I wanted to explore the surrounding forest but was unsure where I could and couldn’t go. Plus I only have a front wheel drive car.
Back on the road I headed west, After a short while I spotted a sign advertising another look out so I followed it. I ended up here right near the furthest one of the Glass House Mountains. Took some photos I had wished that the could have been no trees in the foreground, but oh well still a great view.
Well I hope you like my more detailed post, on my outing to Wild Horse Mountain I’m sure it contains lots of grammar and spelling errors, well it is 4:30pm and i’m tired time for an afternoon nap I think 
Singh-Ray Neutral Density Filters
Over the weekend I placed an order with Helen to buy some Singh-Ray filters from their website. I am really looking forward to using them, they are of a much higher quality than the Cokins. I’ve ordered the Galen Rowell’s Graduated Neutral Density Filter in the 4×6 version at the following stops:
- 3 Stops Hard
- 3 Stops Soft
Given that the freight is quiet expensive, I also decided to get a “Daryl Benson Reverse Neutral Density Graduated Filter” they look very useful and come recommended by Kah Kit Yoong. Again I have ordered the 4×6 version at:
- 3 Stops
Singh-ray have some amazing filters, I have already got my next order ready It will definitely have a Vari-ND which can eliminate up to 8 stops of light, at first I couldn’t see a need or purpose for such filter, but in the December 07 issue of Outdoor Photography (USA Edition) there is a fantastic showcase called “Impressions of Light” by William Neill, who makes great use of this filter. My biggest hesitation on getting the filter right now is that I am not sure which lens I should get it for, the wide angle? or the telephoto? You can also see an example of a Vari-ND filter in this article.
I am also interested in a ColorCombo Filter which combines the LB Warming Polarizer and LB Color intensifier. Check out some of the articles on this filter on Singh-Rays Blog.
Finally I am also going to organise a Lee Holder for these 4×6 filters. There at lots of arguments on using and not using filter holders, quicker to hold, move to blur the ND transition. All side are all valid points, however I would rather have one, then be frustrated out taking photos and not having one.
Bike
My Birthday/Xmas present to myself was a mountain bike. I picked up a Giant Talon 2008 Model, I have no complaints with that bike, great buy.
I have my little circuit mapped out, which takes me to South Bank and back. Takes about an hour, should be great to get me in shape for my trip to Tasmania.
I am also working towards riding with Adam up Mt Cootha, got a lot of training to-do